Tax Blawg

Introduction

Welcome toTaxBlawg, a resource for news and analysis of current legal issues facing tax practitioners. Although blawg.com identifies nearly 1,400 active “blawgs,” including 20+ blawgs related to taxation and estate planning, the needs of tax professionals have received surprisingly little attention. TheWall Street Journal's Tax Bloggives “tips and advice for filers,” and Paul Caron’s legendaryTaxProf Blog is an excellent clearinghouse for academic and policy-oriented news. Yet, tax practitioners still lack a dedicated resource to call their own. For those intrepid souls, we offerTaxBlawg, a forum of tax talk for tax pros.

Chamberlain Hrdlicka Blawgs

Is the IRS getting closer to ferreting out “quiet disclosures” by taxpayers who chose that route to address the problem of previously unreported offshore accounts rather than by participating in the Service's offshore voluntary disclosure program (OVDP)? That’s the conclusion of an increasing number of tax professionals and if taxpayers in this predicament weren't already worried, they should be.

A quiet disclosure involves the filing of new or amended tax returns that report offshore income, and FBARs (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) that provide other ...

Late late year, we asked what's next for foreign bank account holders after OVDI? Although the answer to this question continues to evolve, it is becoming increasingly clear that the risks of detection have only grown – and will continue to do so. The latest news on this front comes from Business Week, which reported Sunday that the IRS has requested account holder information from Liechtenstein's second largest bank, LLB. Specifically, the IRS has asked for information pertaining to accounts holding $500,000 or more anytime since 2004. Current and former LLB account holders who ...

Apparently, there are a large number of U.S. citizens living outside the United States as well as a large number of individuals who are dual citizens of the United States and their country of residence (estimated to be in the millions). Judging from the phone calls that I have been receiving from my contacts at foreign law and accounting firms, a large number of them have recently become aware of the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (“OVDI”) providing reduced penalties for U.S. citizens who come forward to report previously undisclosed foreign financial accounts ...

Last week, the United States Department of Justice asked a federal court in San Francisco to force HSBC India to disclose the names of U.S. customers whom the Justice Department suspects are evading U.S. tax laws. According to the Justice Department’s brief, HSBC India solicited U.S. residents of Indian origin to open bank accounts. HSBC apparently advised those individuals that the bank would not disclose the existence of the accounts, or any interest earned on those accounts, to the U.S. government.

Much confusion has existed over the past few years about filing Form TD F 90-22.1 ("FBAR") to report foreign accounts to the IRS. To remedy this, the IRS issued pronouncements in 2009 and 2010 granting certain FBAR filing exemptions and penalty waivers. Many of these benefits had retroactive effect. A recent criminal case, United States v. Simon, calls into question the validity of the IRS pronouncements. By holding that the U.S. Department of Justice may pursue criminal prosecutions in situations where the IRS publicly indicated that it would not even assert civil penalties, this ...